Observations on economics, the academy, the wider world, and things that run on rails.

11.4.15

TRADE UNITES, POLITICS DIVIDES.

The school of Tom Clancy continues to turn out thick page-turners featuring the work of the standard cast of intelligence officers operating as a quasi-public, for-profit corporation. (See also Locked On, Threat Vector, and Support and Defend.) We'll look at Full Force and Effect, also by Mark Greaney, for Book Review No. 6. Let's keep the story-line vague for those who are contemplating buying the book. Doing clandestine work for profit is not just for Loyal Patriotic Americans, and pariah nations (yes, meet the old Axis of Evil) have commercial interests, and there's expertise to be hired from among drug-runners. The rest follows from there. How boring would a world where everyone buys into The Brotherhood of Man be?